News

MAJOR AWARD AND A UK FIRST FOR QUEEN'S SCIENTIST

13 December, 2017

An academic from the Institute for Global Food Security has won a major award – and made a little history – for his contributions to peer-reviewing.

Dr Paul Williams, a lecturer in Soil and Environmental Biogeochemistry in the School of Biological Sciences, has become the first UK recipient of the Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) journal's 'Super Reviewer' prize, which has been running since 2011.

The ES&T is the American Chemical Society's flagship journal for Environmental Science, and an authoritative source of information for professionals in a wide range of environmental disciplines.

Dr Williams, whose area of research is particularly focused on soil quality, gained his PhD under the supervision of Professor Andy Meharg and they have worked together to help reduce arsenic, among other toxic trace elements, in rice for over 16 years.

Dr Williams is currently researching the scientific and agronomic potential of a technology called DGT (Diffusive Gradients in the Thin Films), which can be used to analyse soil and water quality, in a bid to evaluate the impacts cover crops have on soil health. He's also investigating the potential of using recovered phosphorus products, manures, dairy waste bio-solids, and smart Si soil amendments as fertilisers and conditioners in Irish soils.

Paul has won a number of other awards recently including the 'Excellence in Review' award, also by ES&T, and the President's International Fellowship Award, from the Chinese Academy of Science.